Friday, 20 February 2015

My first week since finishing work has mainly been spent sorting out finances and paperwork with visit of estate agent to value property and beginning to sort out my stuff for retreat next week at Rydal. But yesterday was my first expedition up to town to visit art galleries during the working week ( first of many I hope). The current Whitechapel Gallery exhibition ' Adventures of the Black Square' was definitely worth the entrance fee (alas, I had to hand in my staff pass which got me in free to many exhibitions when I left Kew). Besides the familiar Mondrian and Albers ,more powerful in reality than in print, there was much that resonated in terms of subject matter ( peeling posters of Klara Liden; crumbly walls and doors of Clay Ketter; David Batchelor's 'found' monochromes ) ; so many artists new to me( many of them women); such imaginative use of materials. Textiles featured prominently - I'll be writing more about that in a Ragged Cloth Café Blog post including Anni Albers; Rosemarie Trockel; Adrian Esparza; Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
As with the Emily Carr exhibition I had to buy the catalogue straight away - I couldn't wait to have it posted!

Monday, 16 February 2015

Friday 13th February was my last day at Kew - my main leaving do at the 'Botanist' on Wednesday was lovely, with touching speeches ( I hadn't thought about my legacy in growing plants),over 80 messages in cards with numerous inserts and emails and generous gifts of books for my UCert Course and some very special wine. I also had lunch and drinks with my close colleagues in the lab - they'd cunningly sussed out my interest in a 'weatherwriter' which they'd found useful in Madagascar and I was delighted to receive one of my own along with a scarf, bag and earrings ( they know me so well!) I can see it's use for sketching as well as recording in the field!

With going in at weekends I managed to sort out things more or less to my satisfaction. It will take a little while to sink in I think but at least I can still pop into the Gardens whenever I like as I received a Life Pass.

Now it's on the next phase - an estate agent is coming on Wednesday to value our property.

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My last days annual leave allowance was used a couple of weeks ago to travel up to Warrington for the funeral of Nigel Haynes who I knew at school. We were both on the German school exchange trip to the Black Forest in 1976 and in the 6th form production of 'I have Five Daughters' ( based on Pride and Prejudice). I'd only gone to the auditions to offer help painting scenery but ended up as Charlotte Lucas while I still think of Nigel as the definitive Mr Bingley.

A lovely man , the Facebook page brought so many of us together in some cases for the first time in 30 years ( even my closest friends there I haven't see in 5 ) it was good to catch up even though in such sad circumstances. It was such a special occasion in so many ways, remembering the people we were as well as honouring Nigel, the years just melted away. At a time when I'm facing up to huge changes and saying goodbye to friends and colleagues at work, meeting up with old friends means such a lot to me. We exchanged contact details and are determined that we'll meet more often in future.

One friend , Julie Scott, who I did A level art with, went to art college while I went to university and I've been thinking seriously about paths not travelled and the opportunities now to take them up again.

Melanie kindly collected me from the station and took me back to lunch with her mother who still lives in the village. Pip Sumbler was one of my mums best friends and it was lovely to see her, still stitching ( she has a quilt in book by Dilys Fronks ) and we found we had some quilting contacts in common.
I don't believe much in a physical afterlife but the power of retaining memories of people you know and love, both living and dead. and sharing and passing on their stories, has been reinforced and amplified over the last few weeks.